System and method for SOA-based wire harness development

ABSTRACT

A method for operating a service oriented architecture (SOA) based wire harness system, a corresponding system, and a machine readable medium. The method includes storing wire harness data in a wire harness data model in a wire harness data processing system, interactively communicating the wire harness data with an electronic computer aided design (ECAD) system and a mechanical computer aided design (MCAD) system through the SOA interface, and storing the wire harness data in the wire harness data model.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO OTHER APPLICATION

This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional PatentApplication 61/159,579, filed Mar. 12, 2009, which is herebyincorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure is directed, in general, to computer aideddesign, drafting, manufacturing, and visualization systems (individuallyand collectively, “CAD systems”, and including specialized systems suchas ECAD and MCAD systems).

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

The design of complex systems that include mechanical and electricalelements requires wire routing and harness considerations.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

A method for operating a service oriented architecture (SOA) based wireharness system, a corresponding system, and a machine readable medium.The method includes storing wire harness data in a wire harness datamodel in a wire harness data processing system, the wire harness dataincluding a plurality of variants and options, interactivelycommunicating the wire harness data with an electronic computer aideddesign (ECAD) system and a mechanical computer aided design (MCAD)system through the SOA interface, and storing the wire harness data inthe wire harness data model.

The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technicaladvantages of the present disclosure so that those skilled in the artmay better understand the detailed description that follows. Additionalfeatures and advantages of the disclosure will be described hereinafterthat form the subject of the claims. Those skilled in the art willappreciate that they may readily use the conception and the specificembodiment disclosed as a basis for modifying or designing otherstructures for carrying out the same purposes of the present disclosure.Those skilled in the art will also realize that such equivalentconstructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the disclosurein its broadest form.

Before undertaking the DETAILED DESCRIPTION below, it may beadvantageous to set forth definitions of certain words or phrases usedthroughout this patent document: the terms “include” and “comprise,” aswell as derivatives thereof, mean inclusion without limitation; the term“or” is inclusive, meaning and/or; the phrases “associated with” and“associated therewith,” as well as derivatives thereof, may mean toinclude, be included within, interconnect with, contain, be containedwithin, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with,cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to orwith, have, have a property of, or the like; and the term “controller”means any device, system or part thereof that controls at least oneoperation, whether such a device is implemented in hardware, firmware,software or some combination of at least two of the same. It should benoted that the functionality associated with any particular controllermay be centralized or distributed, whether locally or remotely.Definitions for certain words and phrases are provided throughout thispatent document, and those of ordinary skill in the art will understandthat such definitions apply in many, if not most, instances to prior aswell as future uses of such defined words and phrases. While some termsmay include a wide variety of embodiments, the appended claims mayexpressly limit these terms to specific embodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present disclosure, and theadvantages thereof, reference is now made to the following descriptionstaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein likenumbers designate like objects, and in which:

FIG. 1A depicts a block diagram of a data processing system in which anembodiment can be implemented;

FIG. 1B depicts a block diagram of a data processing system network inwhich an embodiment can be implemented, for example as an enterprisearchitecture;

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of an exemplary system in accordance withdisclosed embodiments;

FIG. 3 depicts a block diagram of such an exemplary lighting system asmay be managed by the disclosed wire harness system;

FIG. 4 depicts an exemplary the electrical structure as could bemaintained in a disclosed wire harness system;

FIG. 5 depicts an exemplary portion of a configured structure as couldbe maintained in a disclosed wire harness system;

FIG. 6 depicts an exemplary portion of topology information of theelectrical structure as could be maintained in a disclosed wire harnesssystem; and

FIG. 7 depicts a flowchart of a process in accordance with a disclosedembodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIGS. 1A through 7, discussed below, and the various embodiments used todescribe the principles of the present disclosure in this patentdocument are by way of illustration only and should not be construed inany way to limit the scope of the disclosure. Those skilled in the artwill understand that the principles of the present disclosure may beimplemented in any suitably arranged device. The numerous innovativeteachings of the present application will be described with reference toexemplary non-limiting embodiments.

Wire harness design, referring herein to the routing, connection,retention, and other management and design of the electrical structureof electromechanical systems, is very complex and spans across multipleengineering applications and processes. Typical harness systems containhundreds to thousands of connections, miles of wire, and thousands ofrelated parts such as splices, terminals, seals, plugs, tie wraps andshielding devices. Moreover, wire harness structures of larger systemssuch as an automobile or an aircraft can consist of several variants andbuild configurations. Therefore, optimal design of wire harness systemis one of the major cost drivers to many industries today.

Wire harness design processes involve data transfer among severalapplications like electronic computer aided design (ECAD), mechanicalcomputer aided design (MCAD), simulation and manufacturing. In othersystems, ECAD, MCAD and other applications can directly exchange theharness design without the need of an enterprise infrastructure.However, management and reusability of harness design is very difficultin the latter case.

Traditional harness design in an enterprise environment involves afile-based harness data exchange. In some processes, electricaldesigners create a two-dimensional (2D) schematic in an ECAD applicationand the data is passed to an enterprise application in the form of netlist (or xml) files along with associated drawing files. Mechanicaldesigners extract the harness information from netlist (or xml) filefrom the enterprise application, create a correspondingthree-dimensional (3D) model and route the wires in an MCAD application.Modified harness data is sent via net list (or xml) and 3d prt filesback to the enterprise application. Electrical Designers in turn extractthe modified harness from the enterprise application and make necessarymodifications to the 2D based on 3D wire harness models with routingdata. Design modifications, iterations and harness data exchange usingnetlist (or xml) files continue between ECAD applications, theenterprise application, and MCAD applications till an optimal wireharness design is achieved. These steps can also be repeated betweenelectrical simulation, manufacturing and enterprise applications beforefinalizing the wire harness design.

In all these steps, harness design and associated files are managed inan enterprise application. ECAD, MCAD and other external applicationsprovide an interface with the enterprise application in order to vaultthe design files used in harness exchange. Enterprise applications serveas a central repository of wire harness design and allow better reuseand change management capabilities. In some systems, enterprise-wideserver applications and systems serve as a bridge for data exchange.

There are various issues and shortcomings that can effect various wireharness design processes that use a file-based harness data exchange, asdescribed below:

Data redundancy: Wire harness data used in harness exchange is stored inmultiple files and applications like ECAD schematics, net list (or xml)files, MCAD prt and drawing files. Many times, ECAD and MCADapplications store/manage harness data in their own proprietary storageapart from the enterprise database. Due to this, severe data loss anderrors can occur during harness design exchange.

Computationally expensive data exchange: Data exchange between ECADapplications, enterprise applications, and MCAD applications issemi-automated and labor intensive. Industries spend enormous timeduring design exchange due to lack of tools for synchronized datatransfer between ECAD and MCAD applications.

Variants & options management: A wire harness assembly can consist ofseveral variants and configurations. Exchanging variants & options withnetlist (or xml) files is cumbersome since it involves building ofseveral possible harness configurations in real time.

Performance and scalability: Complex harness assemblies involveimport/export of large netlist (or xml) files between ECAD applications,enterprise applications, and MCAD applications. Population/Retrieval ofharness information from large files often results in many performanceand scalability issues.

Even for minor changes, it is typical that ECAD and MCAD applicationexchange the entire harness data (in the form of xml and netlist files)with the enterprise application. This also leads to severe performanceproblems during harness data transfer. Hence for real time scenarios,file (netlist or xml) based harness data exchange is not suitable.

Various embodiments include a standard wire harness framework that canbe used for harness data exchange without the need of transfer of largefiles. Some embodiments include a wire harness system with a ServiceOriented Architecture (SOA) based interface for wire harness dataexchange. Some existing enterprise applications can be modified toperform as described herein, including those that provide an SOAinfrastructure that is based on industry standards for web services,primarily adhering to WS-1 and other WS-x standards and best practices.As described herein, some existing enterprise applications can beimproved by adding wire harness SOA services, processes, and structuresin a wire harness system as described herein. An SOA system for harnessdata exchange also supports variants and options capabilities. An SOAsystem can be accessed by external applications in many computerlanguages.

FIG. 1A depicts a block diagram of a data processing system in which anembodiment can be implemented, for example as an SOA-based wire harnessdata processing system. The data processing system depicted includes aprocessor 102 connected to a level two cache/bridge 104, which isconnected in turn to a local system bus 106. Local system bus 106 maybe, for example, a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) architecturebus. Also connected to local system bus in the depicted example are amain memory 108 and a graphics adapter 110. The graphics adapter 110 maybe connected to display 111.

Other peripherals, such as local area network (LAN)/Wide AreaNetwork/Wireless (e.g. WiFi) adapter 112, may also be connected to localsystem bus 106. Expansion bus interface 114 connects local system bus106 to input/output (I/O) bus 116. I/O bus 116 is connected tokeyboard/mouse adapter 118, disk controller 120, and I/O adapter 122.Disk controller 120 can be connected to a storage 126, which can be anysuitable machine usable or machine readable storage medium, includingbut not limited to nonvolatile, hard-coded type mediums such as readonly memories (ROMs) or erasable, electrically programmable read onlymemories (EEPROMs), magnetic tape storage, and user-recordable typemediums such as floppy disks, hard disk drives and compact disk readonly memories (CD-ROMs) or digital versatile disks (DVDs), and otherknown optical, electrical, or magnetic storage devices.

Also connected to I/O bus 116 in the example shown is audio adapter 124,to which speakers (not shown) may be connected for playing sounds.Keyboard/mouse adapter 118 provides a connection for a pointing device(not shown), such as a mouse, trackball, trackpointer, etc.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the hardwaredepicted in FIG. 1A may vary for particular implementations. Forexample, other peripheral devices, such as an optical disk drive and thelike, also may be used in addition or in place of the hardware depicted.The depicted example is provided for the purpose of explanation only andis not meant to imply architectural limitations with respect to thepresent disclosure.

A data processing system in accordance with an embodiment of the presentdisclosure includes an operating system employing a graphical userinterface. The operating system permits multiple display windows to bepresented in the graphical user interface simultaneously, with eachdisplay window providing an interface to a different application or to adifferent instance of the same application. A cursor in the graphicaluser interface may be manipulated by a user through the pointing device.The position of the cursor may be changed and/or an event, such asclicking a mouse button, generated to actuate a desired response.

One of various commercial operating systems, such as a version ofMicrosoft Windows™, a product of Microsoft Corporation located inRedmond, Wash. may be employed if suitably modified. The operatingsystem is modified or created in accordance with the present disclosureas described.

LAN/WAN/Wireless adapter 112 can be connected to a network 130 (not apart of data processing system 100), which can be any public or privatedata processing system network or combination of networks, as known tothose of skill in the art, including the Internet. Data processingsystem 100 can communicate over network 130 with server system 140,which is also not part of data processing system 100, but can beimplemented, for example, as a separate data processing system 100. Inparticular, while only one data processing system 100 and a singleserver system 140 are illustrated here, those of skill in the art willrecognize that the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented insystems with multiple client data processing systems, implemented forexample as a data processing system 100, and multiple server systems140, all connected to communicate with each other over network 130. Anenterprise system such as one of the embodiments described herein can beimplemented as one or more data processing systems 100 or server systems140, and can maintain a database of wire harness models and data.

Various embodiments disclosed herein include enterprise-enterprise dataexchange, enterprise-client data exchange, and client-client dataexchange. In any of these cases, the systems manage the appropriatepermissions on a user or client basis to control read, write, and otheraccess to the wire harness data. FIG. 1B depicts a block diagram of adata processing system network in which an embodiment can beimplemented, for example as an enterprise, architecture. In this figure,an enterprise server 150, that can be a server system 140, is showncommunicating over the network 130. Multiple client systems 160communicate with enterprise server 150 over network 130, as describedherein. Each of the client systems 160 and the enterprise server 150 canbe implemented, for example, as a data processing system 100. In thisexample, each of the client systems 160 can represent a client MCADsystem, a client ECAD system, or other client system usable for workingwith a wire harness data model stored in and mananged by enterpriseserver 150, as described in more detail herein.

Large, complex wire harness systems are used in many industries. Forexample, automotive and aircraft manufacturers deal with large wireharness systems. These industries use ECAD and MCAD applications forwire harness design and Enterprise application for vaulting the harnessrelated files. Currently, manufacturers spend enormous amounts of timeduring harness data exchange (involving large net list or xml files)before finalizing the harness design. The disclosed wire harnessintegration frameworks, methods, and systems significantly reduce thedesign exchange time as they eliminate the need of transfer of largefiles. Further, the disclosed embodiments enable synchronization andmanagement of harness design changes (by ECAD or MCAD) in an enterpriseapplication and data processing system in real time.

In many cases, users of conventional systems create the variants ofharness systems in ECAD application and cannot effectively exchange orreuse the data produced. For example, users are not able to useenterprise-based variants capabilities. This can be caused, for example,by difficulty in synchronization of variants of ECAD and Enterpriseapplications using netlist or xml files. Various wire harness systemsand processes described herein support variants and options and therebyenable the seamless transfer of harness data exchange with variants.

Disclosed embodiments utilize a data model that supports a rich set ofwire harness features and is based on STEP AP212 and KBL standards,incorporated by reference herein. Using a unified SOA based wire harnesssystem as disclosed herein, external ECAD and/or MCAD applications cancreate, retrieve, and modify the harness information stored andmaintained on a centralized server data processing system.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of an exemplary system in accordance withdisclosed embodiments. Here, the wire harness system 205 is shown, whichmanages the wire harness data model (and data) 210 stored in it. Wireharness system 205 can be implemented, for example, as a particularlyconfigured data processing system 100 described above, with an SOA-basedinterface to external systems, as described herein. Wire harness system205 communicates with one or more of ECAD system 215, MCAD system 220,electrical simulation system 225, and manufacturing system 230. Each ofthese client systems can be multiple similar systems, can be combinedinto common systems, or can represent multiple users and clients, aswill be understood by those of skill in the art.

Various embodiments of the disclosed SOA wire harness system providecapabilities as described herein. In some embodiments, the systemfunctions so that external applications can create, modify, and deleteharness objects such as harness systems, connections, connectors,devices, pins or terminals, wires, 3D route topology information,cables, shields, wire protections, harness accessories like plugs, etc.In various embodiments, the system functions so that users can add ormodify the properties of above objects (like wire length, color etc.).In various embodiments, the system functions so that externalapplications can create or delete in-structure associations such asconnectivity association, pin-to-pin association, device-connectorassociation, connection-wire association, wire protection-route segmentsassociation, and wire-route topology association. In variousembodiments, the system functions so that external applications cancreate, retrieve, and delete variants and options on electrical harnessstructures.

In some embodiments, sample SOA clients in java and c++ can be providedas part of the SOA wire harness system. SOA clients provide examples toexchange the harness data with variants and options. External ECAD andMCAD applications can use the sample clients as a guide for wire harnessintegration with the wire harness system.

An embodiment of the disclosed SOA wire harness system is describedbelow using the example of a rear lamp lighting system of a vehicle. Forsimplicity, such a lamp system is considered to have a) short wheel baseand b) long wheel base options.

FIG. 3 depicts a block diagram of such an exemplary lighting system asmay be managed by the disclosed wire harness system. Here, electroniccontrol unit (ECU) 305 is connected to the chassis rear lamp connector310, which is in turn connected to the left rear lamp connector 315 andthe right rear lamp connector 320. The left rear lamp connector 315 isconnected to the left rear lamp 325 and the left ring terminal 330. Theright rear lamp connector 320 is connected to the right rear lamp 335and the right ring terminal 340. All these connections are by wires thatmust be properly routed in the physical environment of the vehicleitself, and so must first be designed and routed using the appropriateCAD systems.

A common scenario of wire harness design involving data exchange betweenECAD and MCAD applications and the disclosed wire harness system canconsist of the following steps. First, the ECAD application populatesthe electrical wire harness structures with predefined variants andoptions in the disclosed wire harness system.

Electrical designers can create a harness system in ECAD and populatethe entire harness information with all possible variants and options(this is called as max complexity harness or 150% harness) in thedisclosed wire harness system.

External ECAD applications can populate the max complexity harnessstructure in the disclosed wire harness system as follows, for example.

For population of new large harness structures, a“CreateOrUpdateHarness” SOA interface is provided. This interface can beused to create harness objects such as connectors, devices, shields,cables, wires, terminals and device to connector, connectivity andconnection to wire associations.

For creation/update of harness objects under an existing harnessstructure, the SOA interfaces can include SOA interfaces such asCreateOrUpdateConnections (for creating or updating connections),CreateItemElements (for creation of terminals, pins, etc.), CreateItems(for creating or updating harness objects such as wires, connectors,devices, etc.), AddOrUpdateChildrenToParent (for adding harness objectsunder any parent in an electrical structure), andCreateInStructureAssociations (for creating device-connector,connection-wire, and other connectivity associations). These granularSOA APIs enable updating of harness design changes in the disclosed wireharness system in real time by external applications.

ECAD applications can create variants and options for max complexityharness structure in the disclosed wire harness system using the SOAAPIs such as CreateOrUpdateClassicOptions (for creating or updatingoption of the max complexity harness structure) and CreateVariantRule(for creating build configurations of the max complexity harnessstructure).

After the ECAD user or application populates the rear lamp harnessstructure (max complexity harness) using the disclosed wire harnesssystem, for example, the electrical structure in the disclosed wireharness system could be represented as illustrated in FIG. 4.

An MCAD application retrieves build configurations of electrical harnessstructures from the disclosed wire harness system. Mechanical designerscreate corresponding 3D part files in an MCAD application(s). In orderto populate the 3D route information for the harness, the MCADapplication first retrieves the electrical harness structureconfigurations from the disclosed wire harness system. The disclosedwire harness system transmits the max complexity wire harness structure,a list of build configurations corresponding to the max complexity wireharness structure, and configured wire harness structure information forany particular build configurations needed.

The corresponding SOA APIs of framework for getting the configuredharness structure can include ExpandPSOneLevel and ExapndPSAllLevels(for retrieving the max complexity harness product structure or aconfigured harness structure) and GetVariantRules (for retrieving thelist of build configurations of the max complexity harness structure).

The disclosed wire harness system can then transmit to the MCADapplication the list of possible configurations of rear lamp harness,and can further transmit to the MCAD application the configuredstructure of rear lamp harness for each particular build configuration(e.g., short wheel base and long wheel base configurations).

A portion of the configured structure for short wheel base rear lampharness could be represented as illustrated in FIG. 5.

The disclosed wire harness system receives modified electrical harnessstructures that add 3D route topology information for wires from theMCAD application.

SOA interfaces of wire harness integration framework for modification ofharness objects with route information can includeCreateOrUpdateRouteObjects (for creating or updating 3D wire topologyincluding route nodes, route segments, route curves, and routeassociations, etc.), and CreateOrUpdateWireData (for creating andupdating wire properties including wire color, wire length, etc.).

After MCAD updates the 3D route information and it is received by thedisclosed wire harness system, the topology information like wire lengthcan appear as illustrated in FIG. 6.

The disclosed wire harness system, in various embodiments, includes anenterprise application that has an SOA framework for wire harness datatransfer. ECAD and MCAD applications can transfer the harness design toby the disclosed wire harness system in the form of netlist (or xml)files. The disclosed wire harness system can communicate with ECAD orMCAD applications to exchange wire harness data with variants andoptions as disclosed herein.

As discussed above, manufacturers and suppliers spend enormous amountsof time in exchanging harness design data using files. With thedisclosed SOA wire harness system, significant performance gains can beachieved compared to file based transfer. Further, harness designchanges can be managed in real time using the proposed framework.

FIG. 7 depicts a flowchart of a process in accordance with a disclosedembodiment.

A wire harness data processing system stores wire harness data,including a plurality of variants and options associated with the wireharness data. Preferably, this is the max complexity harness with allpossible variants and options, but this is not necessarily the case.

The wire harness data processing system interactively communicates ECADdata through an SOA interface and with an ECAD system (step 705), andstores it in a wire harness data model (step 710). This interactionincludes transmitting and receiving wire harness data as the ECAD systemoperates through the SOA interface, and the wire harness data model isupdated throughout the interaction. The ECAD data can include aplurality of variants and options for the wire harness data.

The wire harness system interactively communicates MCAD data through theSOA interface and with an MCAD system (step 715), and stores it in thewire harness data model (step 720). This interaction includestransmitting and receiving wire harness data as the MCAD system operatesthrough the SOA interface, and the wire harness data model is updatedthroughout the interaction. The MCAD data can include a plurality ofvariants and options for the wire harness data.

The wire harness system optionally interactively communicates with anelectrical simulation system and/or a manufacturing system through theSOA interface (step 725). This interaction includes transmitting andreceiving wire harness data as the electrical simulation system ormanufacturing system operates through the SOA interface, and the wireharness data model is updated throughout the interaction, if necessary.

Steps 705-725 can optionally be repeated, once or multiple times, as thewire harness data is revised and updated by the ECAD system and the MCADsystem, and as simulations are run by the electrical simulation system.In various embodiments, each of these interactions thought the SOAinterface allows the respective system to access and update only theimmediately-needed portions of the data, such as specific items of thewire harness data, without requiring the transfer of large data files indisparate formats.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that, for simplicity andclarity, the full structure and operation of all data processing systemssuitable for use with the present disclosure is not being depicted ordescribed herein. Instead, only so much of a data processing system asis unique to the present disclosure or necessary for an understanding ofthe present disclosure is depicted and described. The remainder of theconstruction and operation of data processing system 100 may conform toany of the various current implementations and practices known in theart.

It is important to note that while the disclosure includes a descriptionin the context of a fully functional system, those skilled in the artwill appreciate that at least portions of the mechanism of the presentdisclosure are capable of being distributed in the form of ainstructions contained within a machine-usable, computer-usable, orcomputer-readable medium in any of a variety of forms, and that thepresent disclosure applies equally regardless of the particular type ofinstruction or signal bearing medium or storage medium utilized toactually carry out the distribution. Examples of machine usable/readableor computer usable/readable mediums include: nonvolatile, hard-codedtype mediums such as read only memories (ROMs) or erasable, electricallyprogrammable read only memories (EEPROMs), and user-recordable typemediums such as floppy disks, hard disk drives and compact disk readonly memories (CD-ROMs) or digital versatile disks (DVDs).

Although an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure has beendescribed in detail, those skilled in the art will understand thatvarious changes, substitutions, variations, and improvements disclosedherein may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of thedisclosure in its broadest form.

None of the description in the present application should be read asimplying that any particular element, step, or function is an essentialelement which must be included in the claim scope: the scope of patentedsubject matter is defined only by the allowed claims. Moreover, none ofthese claims are intended to invoke paragraph six of 35 USC §112 unlessthe exact words “means for” are followed by a participle.

1. A method for operating a service oriented architecture (SOA) basedwire harness system, comprising: storing wire harness data in a wireharness data model in a wire harness data processing system, the wireharness data including a plurality of variants and options;interactively communicating the wire harness data with an electroniccomputer aided design (ECAD) system, through an SOA interface of thewire harness data processing system, and updating the wire harness datamodel according to the interactive communication with the EGAD system;interactively communicating the wire harness data with a mechanicalcomputer aided design (MCAD) system through the SOA interface, andupdating the wire harness data model according to the interactivecommunication with the MCAD system; and storing the updated wire harnessdata model as an optimal wire harness design.
 2. The method of claim 1,further comprising interactively communicating the wire harness datawith an electrical simulation system through the SOA interface.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the interactively communicating and updatingsteps are repeated.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the interactivelycommunicating steps include transmitting and receiving portions of thewire harness data as needed by the ECAD system or the MCAD system,including real-time changes to the portions of the wire harness data. 5.The method of claim 1, wherein the updating steps are performed at thesame time as the interactively communicating steps.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the ECAD system, the MCAD system, and the wire harnessdata processing system are separate data processing systemscommunicating over a network.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein storingthe wire harness data in the wire harness data model comprises storingthe entire harness data with all possible variants and options.
 8. Aservice oriented architecture (SOA) based wire harness data processingsystem comprising a processor and accessible memory, the wire harnessdata processing system particularly configured to perform the steps of:storing wire harness data in a wire harness data model, the wire harnessdata including a plurality of variants and options; interactivelycommunicating the wire harness data with an electronic computer aideddesign ECAD system through an SOA interface, and updating the wireharness data model according to the interactive communication with theEGAD system; interactively communicating the wire harness data with amechanical computer aided design (MCAD) system through the SOAinterface, and updating the wire harness data model according to theinteractive communication with the MCAD system; and storing the updatedwire harness data model as an optimal wire harness design.
 9. The SOAbased wire harness data processing system of claim 8, further configuredto perform the step of interactively communicating the wire harness datawith an electrical simulation system through the SOA interface.
 10. TheSOA based wire harness data processing system of claim 8, wherein theinteractively communicating and updating steps are repeated.
 11. The SOAbased wire harness data processing system of claim 8, wherein theinteractively communicating steps include transmitting and receivingportions of the wire harness data as needed by the ECAD system or theMCAD system, including real-time changes to the portions of the wireharness data.
 12. The SOA based wire harness data processing system ofclaim 8, wherein the updating steps are performed at the same time asthe interactively communicating steps.
 13. The SOA based wire harnessdata processing system of claim 8, wherein the ECAD system, and the MCADsystem, and the wire harness data processing system are separate dataprocessing systems communicating over a network.
 14. The SOA based wireharness data processing system of claim 8, wherein storing the wireharness data in the wire harness data model comprises storing the entireharness data with all possible variants and options.
 15. A tangiblenon-transitory machine-readable medium encoded with computer-executableinstructions that, when executed, cause a service oriented architecture(SOA) based wire harness data processing system to perform the steps of:storing wire harness data in a wire harness data model, the wire harnessdata including a plurality of variants and options; interactivelycommunicating the wire harness data with an electronic computer aideddesign (ECAD) system, through an SOA interface, and updating the wireharness data model according to the interactive communication with theEGAD system; interactively communicating the wire harness data with amechanical computer aided design (MCAD) system through the SOAinterface, and updating the wire harness data model according to theinteractive communication with the MCAD system; and storing the updatedwire harness data model as an optimal wire harness design.
 16. Themachine-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising instructionsthat, when executed, cause the wire harness data processing system toperform the step of interactively communicating the wire harness datawith an electrical simulation system through the SOA interface.
 17. Themachine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the interactivelycommunicating and updating steps are repeated.
 18. The machine-readablemedium of claim 15, wherein the interactively communicating stepsinclude transmitting and receiving portions of the wire harness data asneeded by the ECAD system or the MCAD system, including real-timechanges to the portions of the wire harness data.
 19. Themachine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the updating steps areperformed at the same time as the interactively communicating steps. 20.The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the ECAD system, theMCAD system, and the wire harness data processing system are separatedata processing systems communicating over a network.
 21. Themachine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the storing step furtherincludes storing the entire harness data with all possible variants andoptions.